The Artful Year

We are a crafting family.   My daughter and I are always making something.  We are also a family that quite honestly loves to celebrate every season and decorate our home accordingly.  No fancy art here, our daughter's art adorns our home and makes it feel like exactly that...our home.  I hang her masterpieces with pride and even frame certain pieces.  The Artful Year by Jean Van't Hul is another wonderful book by the same author of The Artful Parent.

Celebrating the seasons provides a wonderful opportunity to embrace creativity together as a family. It’s also a fun way to decorate for, prepare for, and learn about the holidays we celebrate. In The Artful Year, you’ll find a year’s worth of art activities, crafts, recipes, and more to help make each season special. These artful explorations are more than just craft projects—they are ways for your family to create memories and mementos and develop creatively, all while exploring nature, new ideas, and traditions. The book includes:

• Arts and crafts, using the materials, colors, and themes of the season

• Ideas and decorations for celebrating the holidays together

• Favorite seasonal recipes that are fun for children to help make (and eat!)

• Suggested reading lists of children’s picture books about the seasons and holidays

The 175+ activities in this book are perfect for children ages one to eight, and for creating traditions that appeal to all ages.

The Artful Year has proven to be a great way to get us creating together and really celebrating the season.  We have made the nature ice wreath (which melted before silly me remembered to take a snap), as well as the 3-D Stained glass wreath for which we chose snowflake tissue paper.


The book is separated by the four seasons and has wonderful ideas for crafts inspired by the holidays during those seasons and the seasons themselves.  We look forward to creating more wonderful pieces and cooking up some of the delicious recipes that pay homage to each season.